Florida Abortion Rate Fell After 6-Week Ban Took Hold

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Florida’s six-week abortion ban caused the state’s abortion rate to drop dramatically, new research shows.

Abortions in Florida dropped to an estimated 5,630 in May and 5,200 in June, a 30% and 35% decrease from the average between January and March, data released Thursday shows.

“Our data paint a vivid picture of the chaos and confusion caused by Florida’s six-week abortion ban,” said lead researcher Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a data scientist with the Guttmacher Institute, a leading research and policy organization focused on sexual and reproductive health.

“Obtaining an abortion in Florida has become much more difficult, with far-reaching implications for Florida residents who now have to cross multiple state lines to get an abortion at a clinic after six weeks’ gestation,” Maddow-Zimet said in a Guttmacher news release. “It also affects residents of nearby states with total or early gestational bans who previously could have traveled to Florida for abortion care.”  

Prior to the ban, Florida averaged 8,050 abortions in the first three months of 2024. A 21% increase occurred in April, with 9,730 abortions taking place before the ban went into effect May 1.

The Florida ban also affects the ability of women throughout the South to obtain an abortion, researchers said.

In fact, following the ban average monthly abortions fell by 7% across the United States, with the drop in Florida accounting for about a third of the decline, researchers said.

In 2023, about 9,000 women traveled to Florida to obtain an abortion, with particularly large inflows from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, researchers said.

Likewise, women living in Florida may have to travel as far as North Carolina — which has a 12-week abortion ban — or Virginia or Puerto Rico to get a medically necessary abortion, researchers said.

The research team noted that medication abortion using pills prescribed via telehealth likely helped soften some of the impact of the Florida six-week ban.

“Our new data on the impact of Florida’s six-week abortion ban yet again demonstrates the ongoing harm that anti-abortion justices on the U.S. Supreme Court unleashed with their Dobbs decision,” said Kelly Baden, Guttmacher Institute vice president for public policy.

“But this is not the end of the story. Florida voters will decide this November whether to enshrine protections for abortion in the state constitution. This ballot measure must get at least 60% of the vote to pass, which is a tough hurdle, but it would create a legal avenue to challenge the state’s six-week abortion ban and other restrictions — and would be a critical step toward ensuring that everyone can get the abortion they need and deserve,” Baden added.

More information

The Guttmacher Institute has more on abortions in the United States.

SOURCE: Guttmacher Institute, news release, Sept. 12, 2024

Source: HealthDay

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